Schueneman-Tumbleson donates first big flag for downtown flagpole

Tuesday

Oct 22, 2013 at 7:00 AM

Dedication ceremony scheduled Saturday morning

Schueneman-Tumbleson Funeral Home owners Mark Schueneman and Brock Tumbleson have donated the first flag to be flown on the newly-installed community flag pole in downtown Kewanee.The 20- by 30-foot flag will be flown from the 105-foot pole that for the last 93 years stood on the Kewanee Boiler property. The pole was moved Oct. 12 to the 200 block of West Third Street just west of the former City Hall location.Mark Mikenas, executive director of the Kewanee Chamber of Commerce, which has overseen the removal and renovation of the flagpole, said, “Since the announcement of the flagpole project Brock and Mark have indicated their willingness to be a part of the project somehow and decided to purchase the oversized flag that is needed to fly on a pole of that size.“We know that maintaining and purchasing new flags will be an ongoing expenditure so we have established a flag fund at the chamber to accept donations,” Mikenas said. “Even before the fund was established I had individuals donating to the cause, which once again shows that Kewaneeans are the friendliest people in the country.”A dedication ceremony for the flagpole is scheduled Saturday at 10 a.m. The Kewanee Veterans Council will be on hand to raise the flag for the first time at its new location.The first flag to fly will be a smaller flag that was given to the Kewanee School District and was the last flag that flew over the Boiler Shop when it closed.“The pole is being dedicated to the men and women who worked at the Boiler Shop and to the citizens of Kewanee,” Mikenas said. “We hope to have former Boiler Shop employees on hand during the dedication and we are looking for longtime employees as well as multi-generation-family employees.” The pole was taken down from its spot in the former Boiler Co. property (now owned by Dierzen Trailers) earlier this year.Dierzen employees sandblasted and painted the flagpole, and built a special dolly for transporting it to the downtown site. With a forklift at one end and the dolly at the other, the flagpole was guided down back streets from the plant on the city’s west site to its present site next to the “Pig Palace.”